The story
Chicago architects Rapp & Rapp designed the St. Louis Theatre, which opened in 1925 with 4,100 seats and spent four decades presenting live vaudeville and motion pictures. In 1966 the St. Louis Symphony Society acquired the building, helped by a $500,000 gift from Oscar Johnson Jr., and renamed it for Walter S. Powell. His estate made the society beneficiary of a $1 million charitable trust.
After a $2 million renovation, with acoustician Dr. Cyril Harris in charge of the acoustics, Powell Hall opened on January 24, 1968, giving the orchestra its first permanent home. A major revitalization, the first since 1968, reopened the expanded hall in September 2025.
Everything that was here
- 1925–present · still open
Powell Symphony HallTheater
The St. Louis Symphony's home opened in 1925 as the St. Louis Theatre, a Rapp & Rapp palace that put on live vaudeville and movies.
See the map in 1926 →
Did you know?
Connected places
Tavern
Bon-Air Cafe and Country Club
Route 66 Drive-In Theatre
Sprague's Super Service Station
Stifel Theatre
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Nearby history
The Fabulous Fox Theatre
Mill Creek Valley Neighborhood
Gaslight Square Entertainment District
Scott Joplin House State Historic Site
Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project
Willie Egan's Saloon (Egan's Rats HQ)
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